SH Archive Pre-1872 Cerbere and Belier: what are these ships?

[KD Archive]

I meant to start this thread as soon as I had a chance to observe these two ironclads docked in Cherbourg, France. (Courtesy of @jd755) The below photo was allegedly taken in 1882, if we were to believe the backside of the photograph, which could actually be a postcard.

• The source with zoomable photographs can be found here.

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I am not sure if those boards on the front of these ships have their actual names on them, but here they are at a max zoom

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One of them appears to be "CERBERE", and the other one I can not really make out, something "??LIER".

It's hard to say if any rivets were used constructing these ships, but they do not look riveted when you zoom in.

It would be interesting to ID these ships, to see if could get some back ground. They were obviously made prior to 1882, and look too futuristic for 1882, in my opinion. To be honest, the look upside down, and just straight up weird.

The above two reminded me the below Russian battleship Tsesarevich, which was made (allegedly) between 1899 and 1901.

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KD: Anyways, if you have any idea what the above Cerbere & Incognito are, please share. Those are two very interesting ships, at least they appear to be.

Update: Per @NorthernLion's research, updated the thread title with "Belier".

Note: This OP was recovered from the KeeperOfTheKnowledge archive.

Note: Archived Sh.org replies to this OP: Pre-1872 Cerbere and Belier: what are these ships?

 

[JWW427]

The French admirals of this era loved the concept of the bloated "Tumblehome" design as an attempt at seagoing stability with heavy guns. It looks very steampunk to modern eyes. The idea faded away as it was only nominally effective, the cost being lots of excess weight.
Angled armor however has more cross section thickness, so not a bad idea. (The CSS Virginia had this first).

The smooth, almost submarine quality of the first photo was also an attempt at seagoing stability. It didn't last as a design ethos.